The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-11

ter except moral sentiment, was so
determined, it would be met with an
| equal determination of resistance by the
Southern States. He spoke of this as
the terrible difficulty" and it was so
for him, for he saw in it the elements of
| disunion and of blood. 1t has been said
that it iseasy for a good man to resist
wrong when 1t is clearly opposed TO the
right, but when virtue is opposed to
virtue is the zeal rending of the soul in
twain. Mr.. Calhoun loved the Union
with religious devotion, but he loved
the South also. A conflict between his
| love for the Union and his love for the
Southern people-that was a terrible
thing 10 him, which burdened his heart
with sadness and grief. He earnestly
sought to prevent the occasion for re-
| newing the strife between the sections.
| In his reply to Mr.. Benton he spoke as
| follows:
Every Senator knsws that was op-
posed to the war; but no one knows but
myself the depth of that opposition.
With my conceptions of its character
and consequences, it was impossible for
me to vote for it. When, accordingly,
l was deserted by every friend on this
side of the House, including my then
horable colleague among the rest Mr..
| kcDufie), | was not shaken in the least
degree in reference to my course. On
the passage of the act recognizing the
war, l said to many of my friends that a
deed had been done, from which the
country would not be able to recover
for long time, if ever; and added, it
has dropped curtain between the pres
ent and the future, which, to me, is inn
! penetrable; and for the first time since
| have been in public life | am unable
to see the future. | also added, that it
has closed the first volume of our polit-
ical history under the Constitution, and
opened the second, and that no NOR
tai could tell what would be written in
| it,
CALHoUE's DIvINATIoN OF OUR PossI-
BILITIEs.
The second volume has been written,
and the world knows its contents. We
are now in the third volume of our consti-
tutlonal history. May its recorded story
correspond with Calnoun's divination of
/ the possibilities of our future destiny as
: delivered in 1916 in the Oregon debate.
| He said in substance that providence
has given US AN inheritance stretching
across the entire continent from ocean
| to ocean, from north to south, covering
by far the greater and better part of its
| temperate zone, and comprising a region
not only of vast extent, but Astounding
in all resources, excellent in climate,
fertile and exuberant in soil, capable of
sustaining in the plentiful enjoyment Of
all the necessaries of life population of
ten times our present number. That
our great mission as people is to occu-
py this vast domain; to replenish it
with an intelligent, virtuous and indus
trlous population; to convert the for
ests into cultivated fields; to drain the
swamps and morasses and cover them
with rich harvests; to build up cities,
towns and villages in every direction,
and to unite the whole by the most
rapid intercourse between all the parts"
He rose to higher grounds and broader
| view and stated that we were charged
by Providence not only with the happiness
of this great and rising people, but in a
considerable degree with that of the
human race. After passing through a
rapid view of the great discoveries and
inventions, multiplied beyond all for
mer examples, by which the vast pow
ers of nature were rendered subservient
to the purposes of art, to the spread of
civilization, to the general progress of
the nation in knowledge and to its diff
fusion through all ranks of society
more especially to the two great agents
of the physical world, steam and cleo
tricity, "the latter of which," he said,
chad been made an instrument for the
transmission of thought, by lightning
itself-magic wires are stretching them
selves in all directions over the earth
and when their mystic meshes shall
have been united and perfected, oul
globe itself will have become endowed
with sensitiveness so that whatever
touches on any one point will be in
} stantly felt on every other" lie de
clared that all this improvement and
, progress are but the dawn of new civ.
ilization, more refined, more elevated
more intellectual, more moral than the
present and all others preceding. "We
have been raised up" said he, "by
Providence to advance these great anc
noble purposes. n VIZ
have Government of a new order, per
fectly distinct from all others which
have preceded it, Government founded
on the rights of man, resting not on au
thority, not on prejudice, not on super
stition, but on reason and consent. All
civilized Governments, if it succeeds
must in the course of time conform tt
its principles / trust we shall not fai
to fulfill our highest destiny"
CALHOUN AND TUE SLAVERY QUESTION
Fellow citizens: "The institution o
tied Slavery is dead-buried in grav'
that never gives up its dead. Why re
open it to-day? Let it rest. Yet, if
remain silent upon the subject 1t will b'
taken as an admission that there is on
part of Mr.. Calhoun's life of which 1t Ii
. prudent for his friends to say nothing
to the present generation. Dissimula
ton and evasion were so foreign to hi
character that in his own case no one
! would disapprove and even disdain sucf
silence more than he. | have this tC
say: That with reference to the consti
{ tutional status of slavery in the States
Mr.. Calhoun never entertained or ex
pressed a sentim ant that was not enter
: tanned and expressed by Henry Clay
John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webste
aud all the eminent statesmen of hi
/ time. That slavery was an institution
, of society in the States. sanctioned ant
upheld by the Constitution of tn
United States; that it was an institu
tion of property, recognized, protected
, and enforced, even upon the State
where slavery did not exist by the fun
! damental law of the Union, that it wa
an Institution of political power which
/, under the provisions of the Constitu
ton, increased the representation OF tn
; Southern States on the floor of Congress
! and in the Electoral College, was admit
, ted by every public man in the countr.
who had the slightest title to position a
statesman.
The only difference between Mr.. Cal
t houn on the one hand, Webster an
: CLAY and such statesmen on the other
: was that the measures hostile to SLAYER
s which they sometimes countenanced
! and at other times advocated, he say
: and predicted were in conflict wit
s these guarantees in the Constitution
and that their direct tendency and iney
: liable effect, and, in many cases, avowe
= motive, was the destruction of SLAYER
l. in the States. And whilst Mr.. Webste
e and Mr.. Clay disclaimed any such me
b tive and denied any such probabl
n effects. he declared to Mr. Webster j
d debate that the sentiment would gro
n and increase until in spite of the Const
tuition. emancipation would be consun
S mated. and that he Mr.. Webster) woul
Il himself be compelled to succumb to
n or be swept down by it.
e Mr.. Lamar then went on to make gu,
+ tations from Calhoun's speeches to sho